How to use the subway in Paris

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How to travel by subway in Paris

Determine your route by identifying the connections and the terminus of each line you will be taking..
Purchase a ticket: a paper ticket, a virtual ticket loaded on your smartphone, or a Navigo pass.
Validate your ticket to pass through the turnstile.
Head towards the departure platform by following the directional signs.

Detailed description of the steps to follow for traveling on the Parisian subway

This guide explains how to use the metro or RER in Paris, which transport tickets to buy, which metro lines to take for a given destination, how to get directions and navigate the maze of subway corridors.

To take the metro in Paris, you must first have a transport ticket. There are several types, more or less advantageous depending on whether you use the metro occasionally or often!

Occasional travel

For occasional trips, you can use a t+ ticket or, if you live or work in Ile-de-France, subscribe to the navigo liberté + service

The t+ ticket

The t+ ticket exists in two forms:

cardboard form This is the classic metro ticket sold for €2.10 individually (NB/ this form will disappear and will gradually no longer be sold during 2022, nor in counters, vending machines, or RATP approved retailers)
rechargeable form (contactless) on “Navigo Easy” pass or telephone : This ticket+ replaces the cardboard ticket+, which will gradually disappear. It requires the prior purchase of a Navigo Easy pass (€2) or the installation of an application on a smartphone. The “Navigo Easy” pass as well as the smartphone can then be recharged as many times as you want with single tickets (€2.10 per ticket) or with books of 10 tickets (16.90€ per notebook).

The t+ ticket allows you to travel on all metro lines, on RER lines in Paris (zone 1), on Ile de France bus lines (except Orlybus and Roissybus), on tram lines as well as on the Montmartre funicular

The navigo liberty + service

For people living or working in Ile-de-France, there is another, more flexible formula: the navigo liberté + service. By subscribing (free) to the service and obtaining a personalized Navigo pass (with name, first name and photo of the user), this service allows you to travel on all of the Ile de France metro lines, on the RER in zone 1, on bus lines covered by an agreement with the Syndicat des Transports d'Île-de-France, on the OrlyBus and RoissyBus lines, on the tram and Tzen lines, on the Montmartre funicular and on long-distance pricing buses. The journeys made are automatically debited the following month.

Determining the route to follow

Once you have your ticket, if you do not know which metro line to take to reach your destination, simply enter the departure station on this tool (in the 'departure' field ) and the place of arrival (metro station, museum, school, monument, performance hall, etc.) in the 'arrival' field, then click on 'launch calculation'. The application then tells you which line(s) to take, in which direction, possibly at which station you will have to change metro lines (what is called a transfer), at which station get off.

Using this detailed information, go to the departure station, where, using your transport ticket, you can go through the turnstiles. Then, simply follow the signposts which show you which corridor to take to reach the appropriate metro line in the right direction (the direction corresponds to the name of the terminus towards which the metro train is heading) .

If your route includes a connection, you must change metro once you arrive at your connecting station, in order to join the other line. But don't worry, everything is indicated on the platforms. Simply locate the number of the line you need to take as well as the name of the terminus your metro should go to to follow your route.

Paris metro lines